Iraqi "Truce" Breaking Down?

[TCO]

They were commie spies.

[TCO]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_and_Julius_Rosenberg

[TCO]

Boo.

Seriously.

Sorry.

[KrazyHorse]

I forgive you because you were trying to get banned.

[Theben]

Keep this up Rah, and I'm going to get very, very angry and write you a letter telling you how angry I am.

rah isn't North Korea.

[SlowwHand]

Don't others do this on their pet topics?

DanS: some economy mumbo jumbo when conservative policies seem to be working.
Drake: whenever some guy named Obama screws up
Sloww: when something good happens in Iraq
DaShi: when something bad happens in China
Agathon: when something bad happens in America
Asher: when Apple screws up

You've got a lot self-professed of moral superiority to be throwing around, if this is going to be your new MO.

Well, put me down as thinking that paying someone not to fight is ludicrous.
Killing them so that they don't fight anymore, now that makes sense.

[MOBIUS]

As usual you don't have a clue. The Awakening Councils came about not because the US created them, but because the Sunni militias got pissed off with the heavy-handed fanatical tactics of Al-Qaeda. The US was incredibly lucky that its two major enemies basically got embroiled in a civil war rather than concentrate on killing US soldiers.

Petraeus merely took advantage of the adage that 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' by supplying the Sunnis with guns and paying them. The problem is that they've stopped paying them, but they still have their guns. This 'convenience' was always going to be a short term solution and, as usual, the US never bothered thinking about the end game.

Sloww, your idea would have involved a LOT more US body bags - one would think you don't give a **** about the lives of US soldiers...

[tinyp3nis]

And the solutions to worlds problems is death to USA. Amen.

[SlowwHand]

Mobius, don't talk to me. You twist things into shapes that no one would ever recognize.

[MOBIUS]

Mobius, don't talk to me. You twist things into shapes that no one would ever recognize.

How so? Everyone here recognises you're an idiot - I don't need to twist that at all...

This is your comment re the Awakening Councils:

Well, put me down as thinking that paying someone not to fight is ludicrous.
Killing them so that they don't fight anymore, now that makes sense.

So, instead of operating the time honoured tactic of 'divide and conquer', taking advantage of the fact that your two main enemies are at each other's throats and all you have to do is pay one side a bit of money to get 100,000+ them to switch sides and stop killing your soldiers - you would rather fight the whole damned lot of them for the sake of your penny pinching ways, and the resultant continuation of dozens of US deaths a month...!?

Seriously Sloww, just how much is the life of a US soldier worth to you...? Cos the answer I'm getting is not much.

[TCO]

US should exit Iraq, now.

[Drake Tungsten]

The war's back on, baby!

Allawi Victory in Iraq Sets Up Period of Uncertainty

BAGHDAD — The secular party of Ayad Allawi, a former interim prime minister once derided as an American puppet, won a wafer-thin victory in Iraq’s election, setting the stage for a protracted period of political uncertainty and possible violence that could threaten plans to withdraw American troops.

The outcome, announced Friday, was immediately challenged by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his supporters in the State of Law coalition, who hurled accusations of fraud and made vague references to the prime minister’s power as commander in chief.

Several parties have cried fraud as their fortunes waxed or waned in the slow vote count, an ominous reminder of an Iraqi political culture where winning is everything and compromise elusive. Western observers and an independent election commission said they saw no signs of widespread fraud. Mr. Allawi galvanized the votes of millions of Sunnis — who boycotted the last parliamentary elections in 2005 — to build his edge of 91 to 89 seats over his nearest rival, Mr. Maliki. That falls far short of the majority of 163 of the 325 seats in Parliament that he needs to form a government.

Iraqi political experts interviewed Friday doubted that Mr. Allawi would succeed in assembling a governing coalition. But even if he did, they said it would take at least until July, possibly even longer, a potentially destabilizing stretch in which a disgruntled Mr. Maliki would serve as caretaker prime minister of the nation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html

Seriously though, I hope Maliki sets a positive example and transfers power peacefully to Allawi if he is able to form a governing coalition. I'm not confident that's going to be what happens.

[Ecofarm]

That we are even talking about semi-legit elections in Iraq today is a miracle.

[giblets]

That we are even talking about semi-legit elections in Iraq today is a miracle.

Well if takes a miracle for a regime change to work maybe we shouldn't invade any more countries.

[Berzerker]

gl Iraq, your future is in your hands

edit, that makes no sense, luck wouldn't be involved